1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for retrieving a scene that a user desires, based on identification information inserted in digital video signals, from a recording media with the digital video signals recorded therein, to reproduce.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 8-130701 discloses a video retrieving apparatus that searches a desired scene based on the contents of the moving video to reproduce. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a video retrieving apparatus described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 8-130701.
In FIG. 1, recorded in storage section 10 is video data comprised of bitstreams conforming to MPEG (International Standard for Moving Picture Coding). Identification information indicative of the contents of the scene corresponding to the user area is inserted in the user data area in the bitstreams. MPEG decoder 20 has a user area code extraction section 28 that extracts the identification information inserted in the user data area. Retrieval section 30 is comprised of retrieval information input section 32 to which the contents of the scene a user desires are input, comparison section 31 which compares the contents input from retrieval information input section 32 to the extracted contents by the user area code extraction section 28.
When the contents of the desired scene is input from retrieval information input section 32, control section 12 is provided with an instruction to retrieve the video signal having the identification information matching the retrieval scene from video signals in storage section 11. Then, when the retrieval scene and identification information match, retrieval section 30 provides an instruction indicative of ON to MPEG decoder 20, and then the decoding and indication of the corresponding video signals (scene) are initiated.
The case expected as an example of using the video retrieving apparatus is that a desired scene is retrieved from a program while another program is reproduced. For example, there is the case that a user searches the tomorrow weather forecast from a recorded news program to reproduce while reproducing, for example, a recorded drama program. Such a case demands a user interface which executes the retrieval without discontinuing the reproduced drama program, and starts reproducing the video of the retrieved weather forecast immediately after the retrieval is finished or after the reproduced program is finished. To achieve such a user interface, it is necessary to execute processing for the video reproduction and retrieval in parallel.
To execute the retrieval of the video from the identification information inserted in the bitstreams conforming to MPEG, it is necessary to extract the data from the user data area in the bitstreams. However, it is not possible for one MPEG decoder as in the video retrieving apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1 to execute the processing for the video reproduction and retrieval in parallel.